e of him as a testimony to the sacredness of
human life, and a warning to all not to do any thing, or connive at any
thing that tended to destroy it. But the owner, if he did not know that
the beast was dangerous, and liable to kill, was not otherwise to be
punished. But if he did know, if it had been testified to the owner that
the beast was dangerous, and liable to kill, and he did not keep him in,
but let him go out, and he killed a man, then, by the direction of
Jehovah, the beast and the owner were both to be put to death. The
owner, under these circumstances, was held responsible, and justly too,
for the injury which his beast might do. Though men are not required or
permitted now to execute this law, as they were when God was the
Magistrate, yet the reason of the law remains. It is founded in
justice, and is eternal. To the pauperism, crime, sickness, insanity,
and death temporal and eternal, which ardent spirit occasions, those who
knowingly furnish the materials, those who manufacture, and those who
sell it, are all accessory, and as such will be held responsible at the
divine tribunal. There was a time when the owners did not know the
dangerous and destructive qualities of this article--when the facts had
not been developed and published, nor the minds of men turned to the
subject; when they did not know that it caused such a vast portion of
the vice and wretchedness of the community, and such wide-spreading
desolation to the temporal and eternal interests of men; and although it
then destroyed thousands, for both worlds, the guilt of the men who sold
it was comparatively small. But now they sin against light, pouring down
upon them with unutterable brightness; and if they know what they do,
and in full view of its consequences continue that work of death--not
only let the poison go out, but furnish it, and send it out to all who
are disposed to purchase--it had been better for them, and better for
many others, if they had never been born. For, briefly to sum up what we
have said,

1. It is the selling of that, without the use of which nearly all the
business of this world was conducted, till within less than three
hundred years, and which of course is not _needful_.

2. It is the selling of that which was not generally used by the people
of this country for more than a hundred years after the country was
settled, and which by hundreds of thousands, and some in all kinds of
lawful business, is not used now. O